Fossil Free Fiday: Are you ready to Rumble?!! (Electric scooter-ish)

Before we get started, please remember that I am the guy who likes ugly machines. My dream list reads like a nightmare for most: the Citicar, the Econoline pickup, the Kewet, the Leaf, the 'Lectric Leopard, the Spira, the Boxx, the Corvair, the Kurbwatt, the Otis, the MiEV... Yep, the list goes on and on. So, it's pretty surprising when I look at an oddball machine and think, Oooh, that thing's not so pretty. When I first glanced the Rumble in a Derek Markham article, I was none too excited. I didn't even click on the article. Not at first, anyway.



 

The Rumble e-Bike

 

But my curiosity got the better of me, so I went back to check it out. And it started to grow on me a little. It grew on me a lot more when I started scoping out the specs:

 

 

As a matter of fact, I've been watching for this combination of speed, range, and price for a while now. And I've always been intrigued by hub-centered steering. And I really like café racers. Yep, the oddball started looking pretty darned good, especially when compared with the other electric two-wheelers available in the states.

 

Go the website and wait - you'll see the video of the Rumble in action.

 

The crew responsible for the Rumble 

Up to a dime to charge it? I could handle that.

 

Rumble Competitors?

 

The GenZe 2.0

 

I recently test rode a GenZe and I loved it, but at $3000, 30mph, and 30 miles of range, I just don't see it being a good solution for suburbanites like me. (I really liked that big trunk!)

The Super Soco (not available here)

 

If we could get the Super Soco in the States, it would be a similar story - $3000/30/30.

 

Well, I guess that's it for today. How about you? Are you ready to Rumble? It looks like the wait time is about a month. If you order one now, you might just get it in time for Christmas. Hmm. Grizz just got a Santa suit. I can sure see him and all the elves Rumbling around delivering toys.

 

Whatever it is, may your ride get you around cleanly, greenly, and grinly!

 

PS. Just for grins I had to throw in one two more two wheelers for comparison. :-)

 

Two Radwagons Shipped (US 48) for $2998
 

Batteries and Butt-Wiggles! (Two Eco Friendly Trikes)

It all started with Big D's 9th birthday. He's been wanting one of those little folding Razor scooters, so I hopped on the craigslist and did not quite find one, but I did find this:

The Razor DeltaWing Scooter

It was new, still in the box, and not expensive at all. So I took a gamble.

I assembled it in the living room and was very curious about how hard it would be to ride. So I put my feet on it, wiggled my butt a little, and I was off and wiggling.

Video of the DeltaWing in action!

It's probably a good thing that I was the only one there. I spent the next half hour drift-triking through the house and grinning huge. The dogs kept barking that I had lost my mind. Those people at Razor are genius! A vehicle that runs on butt-wiggle! I am quite smitten and I keep thinking that I need a slightly bigger one for my work commute. I wonder if I'm in shape for 10 miles of round-trip butt wiggling?

This morning I hopped over to TreeHugger to see what e-bikes Derek Markham has been writing about, and there it was, the electrified adult version of the DeltaWing, or at least pretty darned close to it:

The DC-Tri

You want details?

• 250 watt
• 15 mph
• up to 30 miles
• $1500ish Kickstarter intro price

If you want more info, check in with Derek over at Treehugger.

 

 

Drifting, 'Roos, and Solar Panels - this video has it all!

I really like the DC-Tri, but I have one small problem with it - no butt-wiggle is required to get it going. Maybe the next-gen version could have something like pedelec built in - the buttelec! (Should I copyright that?)

May you get your butt moving, give up the gas, and save the planet!

A shout out to Derek and Razor! Thanks, y'all!

Some previous Razor fanboy posts:

I found my new dream electric vehicle - move over Tesla

Razor Ecosmart Scooter vs. the Storm Ebike

Razor Does It Again! My new favorite EV - the Street Fighter!

Fossil Free Friday - Electric Scooters

Since Grizz, Mendi, Fester, the Loi-Yer, Double K, and Melissa are headed to the Texas United Scooter Rally this weekend, it seemed like a great day to throw a few electric scooters up for Fossil Free Friday.

Grizz' red Vespa and the Mesquite Hugger E-Vespa

  

Earlier this week, Derek Markham posted about a new electric German scooter. (Or should that be "German electric scooter"? Where's Noam when I need him.)

Derek Markham article on TreeHugger

I'm always excited when I run across a new electric scooter so I popped on over and found a pretty standard little scooter that

• looks a whole lot like a 2006 Yamaha Vino
• has a 28mph top speed
• 30 miles of range
• is available only in Europe. Snagit.

 But, then I remembered that we have a similar scooter available over here. The Genze 2.0.

And the Genze may not be all retro-Yamaha stylish, but it's got a nice list of virtues:

• It's vastly slightly faster (30mph!)
• It has the same range - 30 miles
• No insane Teutonic import tariff -  it's made, or at least assembled, in Ann Arbor Michigan!
• It has a removable battery pack, too!
• You can buy one (in Texas) for less than $3000!
• And, it's a 2-wheeled pickup truck! (You know me and electric pickups.)

(A pretty small pickup truck)

The pickup bed even inspired a weekly contest!

So there you have it - two emission-free electric scooters to help you get off the gas, keep it in the ground, clear the air, and generally make the world a less stinky place.

May you live in a less stinky place that you helped to create!

PS. In case the Genze 2.0 is not your thing, be sure to check out the Fido (my favorite), the Boxx, and the Monday Motorbike. - three very different approaches to electric scooters.

The De-Flopillator and a Cool Electric Cargobike (Radwagon)

Trying to cut back on your car usage? Here's a cool option.

From the RadWagon Website

As part of my personal carbon reduction goals, I've been crushing on longtail cargobikes for a while now. I've drooled over Yubas, Xtracycles, Surlys and many others. These are some very cool machines, but the non-electric versions of these definitely hang out on the edge of my financial means. I like the longtail and the midtail bikes because they retain a lot of their fundamental bike-ishness. You get to ride it, lean it, and park it like a normal bike, and it still fits through skinny-ish places. However, you can still use one to haul the kids, your sweetie, the groceries, or 100 pounds of manure (to use in your personal-carbon-reduction garden). I have to admit, I like bakfeits and cycletrucks too, but not as much as the longtails.

A TreeHugger article about a short longtail or a long midtail cargo bike, the RadWagon, popped up yesterday. The article shows a very appealing electric cargo bike that costs about what you'd pay for some of the non-electric versions, and it links to an Electric Bike Report video (which mentions the De-Flopillator).  The video covers the bike in great detail. (And snagit!) it has me dreaming.

Some guy tougher than me in Nicaragua

For me, the best part of driving my little pickup (Lucy) is having the ability to make things happen quickly. If I am trucking down a street and see some really appealing thing sitting on the curb with a "free" sign on it, I pull over and load it up. Keith and Grizz are still upset that I did not load up those three free mannequins that I did not snag while riding by on my bike. (But I think their marriages are better off this way.) When I think about a cargo bike I also think about the number of times I ride my by bike home to get the truck so I can buy groceries and of the days when I don't ride the bike because I have to pick up 44 pounds of dog food on my way home. Yep, having a cargo bike with electric assist could go a long way to lowering my personal carbon production. And my eco-dork cred could go through the roof, which is more important in my self image than I'd like to admit.

So here's this really impressive $1700 bike out there ($1400 if you act now) and it's haunting me a bit. How many needs could be covered with this one machine?  What could this machine do for my carbon reduction goals? How much of a fair-weather biker am I? Would the orange paint clash with my green ideals? Would I have made a different choice on the mannequins if I'd been on the RadWagon?

May you be dreaming of or haunted by ways to make carbon reduction improvements.

A Self-Powered Pickup on Two Wheels

Not being (financially) rich is a blessing for me. First, it forces me to find cheap and creative solutions to expensive problems. Second, it keeps me from running off and blowing all of our hard-earned money on somebody else's hard work and creativity.

That somebody else for today's blog entry is a guy named Neal Saiki.

Neal, among other things is the co-founder of Zero Motorcycles. At this point in time, Zero is probably your best option if you want to go out and buy yourself a new electric motorcycle, but don't ask for Neal if you drop by the factory. (And it's very hard to drop by the Zero factory - I tried last year.)

You will find him down the road at his new place - NTS Works, where they build some extremely cool and functional electric cargo bikes. Pricewise, they are in the same range as the cool cruisers featured on this blog back on January 8th (link at the bottom). But there are a few major differences. The NTS bikes are not built to be beauty queens or showpieces. They are built to do work and to be two-wheeled trucks. And one of the NTS bikes is built to feed itself. All you have to do is park it in the sun.

If we had the hard earned money just sitting in a pile at home, I'd be throwing that money at Neal as soon as I finished this blog post. If you follow this post through to the NTS website, be sure to check out the very high-powered and compact solar panel and how little the price difference is between the solar and the non-solar models. And check out their interesting and appealing approach to battery warranty. And, just bask in the glory of the functional coolness. (Sigh.)

Now for those of you who sigh like I do and don't have the pile of money to throw at Neal, here are a few Instructables to help you run out and build your own cargo cycle.

And here is the January 8 Mesquite Hugger post.

And here is the original Derek Markham article  from Treehugger that led me to the NTS Works website.

May you be inspired whether you throw money at Neal or not.